Obama: Companies that avoid taxes are renouncing citizenship

President Barack Obama greets people as he stops at Franklin Barbecue during a visit to Austin, Texas July 10, 2014.

Tax smackdown:President Barack Obama plans to go on the offensive later Thursday against companies that use cross-border mergers to avoid U.S. taxes, accusing them of essentially renouncing their American citizenship to shield profits. Bloomberg reports Obama will say in Los Angeles that companies using so-called inversions benefit from the economic advantages of being in the U.S. while adding to the tax burden of middle-class families. Democrats have called for action to stop inversions but analysts say near-term chances of legislation being enacted are very low.

On the floor: The Washington Post takes a look at recent polling on Obama’s job approval rating and declares the president might have hit his approval floor. In the midst of international crises including a wave of minors crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and the re-ignition of Israeli-Palestinian violence, Obama’s job approval ratings haven’t budged. But the president doesn’t have much to crow about: 55% have disapproved of the job he’s doing in the last three CNN/Opinion Research polls. The Post writes: “Obama needs more than stable ratings to help fellow Democrats this fall [in midterm elections]. He needs them to get better.”

Let me Google that for you: Heard of the National Technical Information Service? Sens. Tom Coburn and Claire McCaskill have, and they want to kill it. The branch of the Commerce Department compiles federal reports and sells them to agencies and the public upon request, National Journal writes. But Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, and McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, charge that it’s hard to justify 150 employees and $66 million in taxpayer dollars when almost all of the documents are available online for free. Hence the title of their bill to eliminate the agency: the Let Me Google That for You Act.

They’re watching: President Obama plans to issue an executive order to develop privacy guidelines for commercial drones operating in U.S. airspace, Politico reports. The order would put the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in charge of developing the guidelines. The arm of the Commerce Department would bring together companies and consumer groups to hammer out a series of voluntary best practices, Politico said. Consumer groups and some lawmakers have said drones could violate people’s privacy by looking into their homes or backyards.